I am now finally proud owner to 2 algae eater, in sweden called something like beardmouth!

They are tiny right now, and will have their own tank whole summer, so I hope they will grow.

No names yet!

One...



The other...

So sweet! A proud moment when you get your first algae critter They will gobble all the algae up in days..watch out for shiny glass!

Good luck with them. I hope they live up to their reputation in Sweden, as the ones I have gotten here just wait for me to feed them and do not do their job. Maybe they do not like algea.

Again, Congrats, they are very cute.

Thanks! Their scientific name are Ancistrus dolichopterus. I really hope they like algae, I have a lot of it!

Lorrie- once they tasted home food there was no going back to that slimy old ...algae...whatever were we thinking!!! Mine too, one look at the cucumber and they forget about their careers !!!

Congratulations Anette! They look very nice! They'll add some more interest to your tank and hopefully do spot of cleaning too!

I love the spotted one! will they eat brown algae too?

He's a bushynose or bristlenose pleco.

I them Anette such a pair of cuties

New pics are coming soon!

looking nice can't wait for the new pics

Both of them!



Uno!



Due!



Uno sucking!



Cute little critters!

very nice hours of staring plesure they're soooo cute

they look great i really like their white spots

awwww I love these guys!
You got a great pair there. Are they both female? It would be cool if you had a male and female and they had babies! woooohoooo

Best of luck with them. I look forward to seeing them grow. My male is 4 inch now and has a really unique character they just steal your heart.

They suck!

HAHA.......



I don't know if they are male or female, they are soo tiny! Males get bristles don't they? I want them to grow!! I can hardly see them!

Yup the male will get alot of bristles, they look like the end of a toliet brush LOL

Check out some of Devs pics she has them but albino ones and they are really cool when they breed.

I got mine at about 3 inch and he had his bristles then. He keeps the tank so clean its amazing! Sinse having him I only waterchange and gravel vac once a week ( they poop ALOT! long dark strings of poop) I have not once had to manually remove algae in that tank and its in my bedroom by the window with lots of light.

Mine lives with 4 female blue guppies and had 2 male blue jap guppies (one now, one was dead when I got home) that I use for breeding and they get on well. They add a bit of color to the tank and the bristlenose adds a huge amount of character

Do you have a piece of driftwood in there? They need this to munch on and to provide some nutrient that I cant think of right now.
If not then when you get a piece you may want to soak it in buckets till its stops leaching some color in the water before adding it to the tank, and watch the PH carefully, it tends to drop it.

Yes I have! But I didn't know they were munching on it I thought they liked to hide behind/under it!

awww thats a nice big piece

They will love it! yes they do munch on it and hide in it.
They can get quiet shy or get a shock when u sudenly put the lights on so often if u walk in the darkened room thn add light look at the tank and you will see them dart under the driftwood.

I often sit in my room in subdued light and sit very very still, then he comes out and explores, its cool to watch, he sucks on the heater,themometer, all the glass like a turbo charged vacume LOL

At night in bed with no lights on I have often woken up to the sound of him rumaging in the gravel and having a whale of a time in the dark LOL they very active at night.

and I love it when you can see the mouth on the glass like in your pic...its like looking into the big black hole of algae distruction LOL

Cool! One of them, I call him Uno, loves the eheim pump! He sits on it, under it and behind it! It scares me but he managed to get out by himself so I guess it's ok, they are so thin!

hehe he/she is settling in nicely then
eheim? a canaster filter??? so he is exploring the intake?

Hey Anette, love your new additions! -they're so cute when they're young! It's great to watch them grow too! I'll keep my fingers crossed you've got at least one male! I love them with bristles all over their nose.

I now finally decided their names, Uno and Normal, these critters are called "mal" in swedish!

They are not so shy anymore, flying around and chewing algae and doing their job!

Uno!



Normal!

they are both georgous!

but uno is just "cool" I got my finger crossed that he grows some bristles

LOL! I just got one also, named him/her Binny and I'm getting a Albino this week. Looking into getting a Gold Nugget pleco also.

They are pretty cool! Glad your getting a kick out of them as I am mine!

I know this is an old topic but I got some nice pics of my plecs and thought I'd share them. They have grown and so have their bristles!
This is Normal. He was the tinier one, now I think they are same size.

This is Uno. He has grown enormous bristles, but it's difficult to see.

I guess they are both male!

Awwww, how cute!!!!!!!!!!! Put more pics up soon ^.^!!

Great lookin fish OldHag!

nice plecos!
so its only the males that have bristels? and theyer safe with goldfish? ive been seeing a lot of them latley, but i didnt know thats what the looked like!
i thought the were theese ugly black things with a lump full of tentacles on their nose!
too much ! in this post lol so heres a ?

Those are really amazing pics! I can't get pics of mine. They fly off as soon as they see the camera.
2 males may be just as well Anette with all the other fry going on this summer

I think the lighter patch is the area that changes when they come of age- like goldfish tubercles-with the albinos its pink but same place.
Someone correct me if Im wrong, Im still learning about these little fish flys.

Thanks! I find them extremely cute when they "fly" around the tank!